An often engaging novel that’s undermined by its turn toward grandiose political machinations.
An American gemologist searches for a legendary emerald mine in the wetlands of Brazil and gets drawn into a vast political conspiracy in Brewer’s thriller set in the early 1990s.
Jake Tate spent years selling contraband diamonds in Angola, a dangerous but lucrative trade, but then disaster struck—the country erupted into civil war, and he was forced to flee over the border into Zaire. There, he was arrested and imprisoned and lost most of the diamonds he was transporting. He’s free now, but he can’t afford to ignore the possibility of a big score. While trying to buy emeralds in Brazil from old friend and jeweler Itzhak Blum, Jake learns that Itzhak’s impressive emerald collection comes from the Borba mine, nestled deep in the Brazilian jungle in the remote locale of Pantanal. Itzhak’s source of information, professor Joaquim Fontes, has vanished, but he offers Jake the man’s address in exchange for a piece of the action if Jake tracks down the mine. However, when Jake arrives at the professor’s home, he finds the man’s wife, Isabella, in despair—she’s convinced her husband has been murdered, and his map to the mine has been stolen. Jake believes it was likely pilfered by Heiner Klimt, a German rival who’s bested Jake for years. However, Brewer has an adventurous inclination toward the implausible, so he makes sure that Jake has a chance encounter with Marisa Fontes, Joaquim’s daughter. She’s not only sure her father is alive, but also just happens to have memorized the stolen map. There remains one major problem—the land where the mine is located is owned by Sen. Alfonso Fonseca, a candidate for the Brazilian presidency.
The first half of this relatively short novel—barely more than 200 pages—is a gripping tale of underworld crime and desperate aspiration; Jake is effectively shown to be willing to risk everything for his big shot at real wealth. His dream is a shallow, materialistic one, but its conflict with Marisa’s emotional longing to find her father seems to open him up to the possibility of new and redemptive depth, which Brewer artfully and sensitively depicts in these pages. Also, the author vividly describes the formidable wetlands of the Brazilian interior, getting across its compelling combination of lush beauty and peril. Indeed, for the most part, this is a torridly paced thriller overflowing with sharply described action. However, the more the plot pivots to a political conspiracy involving Sen. Fonseca and the world of illicit drug trafficking, the more fantastical and unbelievable it becomes. Moreover, the picture of Brazil’s corrupt political scene lacks nuance and reduces it to a bland version of oligarchic corruption: “Only an idiot would vote for the bastard or anybody else in his coalition if they bothered to follow their legislative voting record, but nobody does. Politics don’t work that way here….Elections are won with free T-shirts, free beer, dances, and lots and lots of money.”
An often engaging novel that’s undermined by its turn toward grandiose political machinations.Pub Date: April 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-95-534711-2
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Goldtouch Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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